To save $2 billion in some distant year—at least that’s the official story—GM bought 7% of French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën. Perhaps it hoped that the alliance would bail out its bleeding subsidiary Opel. But what GM bought into was one of the most uncompetitive automakers in one of the toughest auto markets in the world. And there is no happy end in sight.
Europe
The Big Rift Between Germany and France
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Big Rift Between Germany and France
The crowd at the Place de la Concorde in Paris on Sunday, one week before the first round of elections, had come to hear French President Nicolas Sarkozy beg for his job. And politicians were listening warily … in Germany. He’d already shocked them in March when he’d declared that he wanted to renegotiate the Schengen Treaty. Now he went after the independence of the European Central Bank. Germany’s answer was swift.
Suddenly A Nasty Fight over Subsidies for Nukes in Europe
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Suddenly A Nasty Fight over Subsidies for Nukes in Europe
The meltdowns at Fukushima that have caused so much havoc have also paralyzed Japan’s nuclear power industry. The last of its 54 reactors will be taken off line in May. “Deindustrialization” grips power-starved Japan. TEPCO, owner of the plant, is bailed out with trillions of yen in taxpayer money. And now, halfway around the world, in the EU, nuclear power is lining up to suck at the teat of the taxpayer, but ingeniously, those in other countries.
A Greek Impossibility: 2 Millions Missing Jobs
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on A Greek Impossibility: 2 Millions Missing Jobs
It’s not like the hapless Greeks—and by extension their foreign sponsors—don’t already have enough problems on their hands. Now comes the Hellenic Statistical Authority with its just released Labor Survey that showcases a job market and unemployment issues that were the ugliest ever. And within this sobering picture there was one number that knocked the breath out of hope itself.
A Grimy Dipstick into France’s Gritty Economic Realty
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on A Grimy Dipstick into France’s Gritty Economic Realty
The first quarter of 2012 was brutal for businesses in France: 16,206 filed for bankruptcy. A trajectory that may demolish the prior annual record set in 2009 during the financial crisis when 61,595 firms went bust. Since then, bankruptcy filings eased off. Now the direction has changed—and worse, it is hitting larger companies and a lot more jobs. But the French have a solution, one that would violate fundamental rules of the EU.
Greece: Even Corruption Is In A Deep Recession
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Greece: Even Corruption Is In A Deep Recession
Transparency International just published the results of its National Survey on Corruption in Greece, which tried to sort out the kind of bribery and petty corruption that households had to deal with in their daily lives. The results were sobering, as they tend to be with corruption surveys—but in an unexpected way: for those asking for bribes, an outright depression has commenced.
An IMF Absurdity
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on An IMF Absurdity
On April 20, finance chiefs and central bankers of the G-20 hold a shindig in Washington DC. At issue is money. Bailout money for the Eurozone. The IMF wants to dig deeper into its pocket, but the amounts are skyrocketing, and … “We certainly need more resources,” explained IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. Bankrupt countries try to bail out bankrupt countries. And taxpayers everywhere get to foot the bill.
No More Viagra For Mario Monti And His Ilk
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on No More Viagra For Mario Monti And His Ilk
Economic reforms are tough. While they’re supposed to open opportunities, put budgets on sounder footing, or make the country more competitive, they invariably cut into the flesh of some groups, who then react with demonstrations and strikes to put pressure on the reformers to preserve the status quo. But in Italy, pharmacists have come up with an ingenious and tongue-in-cheek strike aimed straight at the reformers personally.
Greece: They’re Not Even Trying Anymore
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Greece: They’re Not Even Trying Anymore
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, while in Japan, summarized it eloquently when he said, “The financial aspect of the crisis is over.” The ECB, despite apparently fake German reservations, has jumped with both feet on the money printing bandwagon where it happily joins the Fed, the Bank of Japan, and other central banks. The endless flow of money has started in the Eurozone, and Greek politicians have figured this out.
Taking Bosses Hostage: A Labor Negotiating Tactic In France
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Taking Bosses Hostage: A Labor Negotiating Tactic In France
At 2 p.m on Thursday, the final day of the annual wage negotiations that were going nowhere, Bruno Ferrec, the man in charge of the nine Fnac stores in Paris, was “retained” by 120 of his employees at a conference room at the Hotel Ibis in Paris. “For now, we do not know when we will let him go,” said the representative of the CGT, one of the unions involved in the negotiations. And the police did nothing.